The Lessons Learned Handbook

2

Elements of a lesson learning system

Successful approaches to systematic lessons-learning have a long and illustrious history. The Golden Age of Navigation, for example, was also a golden age of deliberate learning. This was the 15th century when the premier learning organisation in the world, the Sagres School – the most advanced navigation study and research centre of the time, was in Portugal.

Lesson learning approaches in the 15th century

The 15th-century navigators were, literally, heading off into the unknown, and their lives, as well as their fortunes, were at serious risk. Knowledge – lessons from previous expeditions, from their mistakes and blind alleys, and from their successful voyages – was vital to them, and the navigators themselves ...